Tissues deprived of blood and oxygen undergo ischemic necrosis or infarction with possible irreversible organ damage. In some circumstances, such as during surgery, interruption of blood flow resulting in ischemia of some organ is unavoidable. In addition, in the case of solid tumors, it is desirable to interrupt the blood flow and actually induce ischemia. Once the flow of blood and oxygen is restored to the organ or tissue (reperfusion), the organ does not immediately return to the normal preischemic state. For example, in the case of the ischemic myocardium, reperfused postischemic non-necrotic myocardium is poorly contractile and has reduced concentrations of high energy nucleotides, depressed subcellular organelle function and membrane damage that resolves only slowly.
There is a need in the art for methods of reducing tissue damage due to ischemia and treating solid tumors. The present invention addresses these needs.
Literature
U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,977; U.S. Patent Publication Nos. 20020168354 and 20020150984; Inagaki et al. (2003) Circulation 108: 869-875; Mackay and Mochly-Rosen (2001) Cardiovasc. Res. 50: 65-74.